Solar Powered Wildflower
by ohgodthebees
Summary: Drabble & one-shot collection for the shipwright, the archaeologist, and the love story they stumbled upon somewhere between Water 7 and the end of time. [Frobin]
1. Confessions

_Notes_

I could take this opportunity to present this piece as a very contrived, thoughtful exploration of the complex relationship between two fascinating fictional characters, but it's really just a place for me to dump enormous buckets of fluff/funny headcanons I have about Ma & Pa Straw. In any case, I'm very grateful to you for reading these little love vomits, and I hope they bring you as much joy as they brought me when I wrote them. :)

* * *

 _1\. Confessions_

"When did you know?"

"That I was attracted to you? Oh man, like two seconds after I saw you. … But I think it really hit me when you saved my ass at Thriller Bark, with that whole guardian angel routine, remember?"

"Fufufu. Yes, well, I may have been showing off a bit back then."

"Alright, so when did _you_ know?"

"That's a secret."

"What?! Nonononono, that's super uncool! You have to tell me!"

"Well…"

"Robiiiiinnnn…"

She smirked.

"… Coup de Boo."

"… No way. R-really?"

"Mmhmm."

"… C-can we make it a different moment?"

"No."

"… super uncool."


	2. Fight

_Summary_

"Don't make that face in Chopper's body again. Ever."

 _Notes_

Robin losing her patience with Chopper!Franky never fails to make me laugh, and I'd imagine he would play it up even more after it got such a rise out of her the first time. Ergo, this. Enjoy. :)

* * *

 _2\. Fight_

"Hey babe."

Silence.

"Baaaaaaaabe."

Still nothing.

"I'm soooorrryyyy…"

He grinned, reaching out to pinch her rear with a tiny hoof.

Robin sat bolt upright at his touch, bristling and shooting him a death glare that gave him full-body chills. "Don't. You. _Dare_."

"All right all right I'm sorry I'm sorry! It's just…" he gave her his best puppy-eyes. "… it's hard to act like I'm not _super_ in love with you, even for a minute, you know?"

He did a mental victory dance when he caught a note of sympathy in the corner of her eye.

After a long moment, she sighed, turning to face him. "No, no, you're right. I'm sorry. I understand you're trying to cheer me up." She stroked his cheek lightly, smoothing the fur out of his eyes and trying her best not to let her discomfort show on her face. "… But while you're in Chopper's body, could you please refrain from—"

"—BEING SUCH A SEXY LITTLE REINDEER?" he struck his signature pose, grinning wildly. "AOW!"

But then a threatening, claw-like pair of hands appeared between his tiny knees, and the terrified squealing noise he made was more Chopper-like than anything he'd done since Law switched their hearts.

She folded her hands in her lap with a self-satisfied smile. "That's better."


	3. Old Friend

_Summary_

After Luffy finds the One Piece, an old acquaintance comes aboard the Sunny.

 _Notes_

Because who doesn't love Bon-chan, really?

* * *

 _3\. Old Friend_

Immediately after becoming the Pirate King and establishing a truce between the Marines, the Emperors, and the Revolutionary Army, Luffy made it his top priority to cash in a few favors from Vice Admiral Coby, get into a screaming match so intense that Magellan actually passed out from the Haki feedback over the Den-Den Mushi, and finally, _finally_ get "Bon-chan" out of Impel Down.

The reunion was predictably flooded with tears and declarations of eternal, unwavering friendship. But it was also the first time Bentham had seen his old coworker, one Miss All-Sunday, since Baroque Works disbanded all those years ago. So once all the celebrating had died down a bit, he sat down for tea with the beautiful, mysterious woman, who now went by her given name and served as the Pirate King's archaeologist.

He didn't remember her being quite so tall. Or relaxed. Or pregnant.

"I'm due in September," she said with a smile that made her look virtually unrecognizable, placing her cup neatly in its saucer. "We're planning to call her Olvia."

"Or Tom!" the enormous, pantsless, shockingly hilarious cyborg she was married to interjected from across the deck. He was sprawled out on the floor, poring over a pile of complicated blueprints he'd drafted up for Bon's new ship.

"Or Tom." Robin echoed sweetly, with a fond beam over her shoulder that oddly made their guest feel like crying. "But Sanji thinks it's a girl, and his gift for detecting female presences is rather… uncanny."

Bon shot her a big, trademark grin. "Well, I think those are darling names! And that is such a coincidence—my father's name was Tom, but he went by 'Olvia' later in life, ohohoho~!"

Robin smiled knowingly. "That _is_ quite a coincidence."

"… Oh, you're impossible to fool, Miss All-Sunday! My little charades never were a match for you… Speaking of which, does this mean your hubby is _Mr._ All-Sunday?"

"Wait, what'd he just call me?" Franky hollered from afar, lowering his drafts for a swan-shaped cannon with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"Nothing, dear," his wife called in reply, shaking her head with a chuckle under her breath. "… But yes, I suppose it does."

So they raised their cups to the All-Sunday family, and suddenly it was like they'd never been anything but old, dear friends—laughing and chatting in the light of the sun, with the flag of their savior flying free on the mast above them— and the sandman they once feared was nothing but a fragment of some far-off nightmare, never to darken their dreams again.


	4. Flying

_Summary_

AU drabble based on the Volume 76 SBS, where Oda named possible careers for each of the Straw Hats if they didn't become pirates. (Franky and Robin were a pilot and a cabin attendant, respectively.)

 _Notes_

oda totally ships it, and so should you.

* * *

 _4\. Flying_

"AOW! Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pervert—I mean pilot—Frrrrrrranky speaking! As we begin our final descent into Sabaody International Airport, please take a moment to thank your flight attendant, my SUPER amazing girlfriend, Nico Rrrrrrobin! Don't unbuckle your seatbelts before we land though, because she's got eyes and ears everywhere, right babe?"

"Fufufu. I do indeed."

"You heard the lady! Also, if any of you pigs leave trash for her to clean up, I'm gonna come back there and open a 747 gas tank full of whoopass on every last stinkin' one of you. Welcome to Sabaody, ooooooverrrr and out!"


	5. Man to Man

_Summary_

Sabo and Luffy get drunk and talk Frobin.

 _Notes_

It makes total sense to me that none of the Straw Hats ever talk about sex in One Piece- they're around Luffy 24/7, and they know he's just going to get bored if they try to bring it up. I thought it would be fun if someone like Sabo, who hasn't been around his brother in years, tried to get him to talk about who's-doing-who like a normal teenager. :)

* * *

 _5\. Man to Man_

The Straw Hats had always been virtuosos in the ancient pirate art of raging, drunken partying – so much so that Nami affectionately called the boys "party monsters," even though it was no secret that she could drink them all under the table without breaking a sweat. So on the day Luffy found out that his long-lost brother was still alive, Sabo was the only one who looked surprised when the drinks started flowing and the whole ship practically lit up with revelry in a matter of seconds.

Two kegs, 26 songs, and one tear in the mainsail later, Brook finally let out a big yawn, gently laid his guitar in its case, and bowed out to retreat to his cabin, leaving Robin, Sabo, and Luffy the only three people still left awake.

Their guest knew that Robin was a night owl from her time with the Revolutionary Army, but Luffy—who was currently babbling on about Ace through a mouthful of seaking meat—had always slept like a baby after a full day of play. He must have outgrown that, the older brother mused, feeling a twinge of sadness at the thought.

Finally, at around 2 AM, Robin announced that she was going to bed.

"You boys do your best to get some sleep," she said with a smile over her shoulder. "It was lovely seeing you again, Sabo."

"Same to you, Robin. Sleep well!"

"'Night, Robin!"

Sabo watched her go in silence, taking a long sip of his beer. Luffy yawned from his perch on the Sunny's lion figurehead, stretching his arms all the way up to the crow's nest.

"I gotta ask," the elder of the two finally said, leaning on the railing and turning to his brother with a short chuckle under his breath. "What's the deal with Robin and Franky?"

Luffy blinked. "What do you mean?"

Sabo laughed, raising his eyebrows with a mix of fondness and skepticism. "Luffy, we're both men now. Level with me here."

"Okay."

"So, spill it!" the older brother said with a big grin. "What's going on between them? Are they, like, an item?"

"They're my nakama."

Sabo stared at him for a moment, incredulous. This conversation was going nowhere fast. "…Right, but what is their relationship with each other like?"

Luffy's face lit up. "Franky does a really good impression of her. He makes his hair look like hers and he sticks out his chest so it looks like he has boobs and he says stuff like, 'I wonder if they've been torn apart by sharks.'" He laughed heartily, voice echoing loudly in the night air.

Sabo couldn't help but smile at the sound. "Okay, so what about Robin? What does she say about him?"

The captain thought for a moment, tilting his head a bit as he did when he was trying hard to figure something out. When he spoke, his expression was uncharacteristically pensive. "She doesn't always get the robot stuff. But she likes him. I know 'cause she laughs a lot more when he's around."

The revolutionary couldn't help but marvel at his brother's knack for being unintentionally romantic, wondering if that skill would help Luffy find a mate someday. But still, whether it was out of older-brotherly instinct or morbid curiosity, Sabo felt the need to find out if his little brother had ever been given the talk.

So he probed further. "… Okay, let me ask you this. Do Robin and Franky share a room?"

Luffy scrunched up his nose, pouting. "Yeah, I'm not supposed to go in there at night, even though I'm the captain."

Oh god. _Nineteen years old_ , and he had _no idea_. "Luffy… do you know why you're not allowed to go in their room at night?"

"Zoro says it's probably 'cause they're having sex."

Sabo choked on his beer. Luffy picked his nose absentmindedly.

"This is boring. Do you wanna play a game or something?"

"Hold on. Wait a minute. You said they're having _sex_?"

Luffy blinked. "Um. Duh. They're boyfriend 'n girlfriend."

Sabo massaged his forehead with one hand, leaning exhaustedly on the railing of the ship. "Oh my go—Then why didn't you just say that from the beginning?!"

"What does it matter? They're still nakama. The only difference is that they kiss and stuff sometimes. Who cares?"

"Most people—" but the older brother stopped himself. Luffy was a lot of things. But he was not _most people_. "… You know what, forget it. You're right. It's not important."

"Shishishi. You're weird, Sabo."

"Right back atcha, champ."

He took a long drink, and all of a sudden he felt warm in spite of the chilly night air. A lot of things had changed since they were boys. And at that moment, he couldn't have been more grateful that Luffy wasn't one of those things.


	6. Touch

_Summary_

It's always foggy in Thriller Bark.

 _Notes_

Warning: my two loves, Sanji and profuse swearing, are both in this. I'm so glad those two things tend to go hand in hand. 3

* * *

6\. Touch

To say that Thriller Bark was a macabre spectacle was like pointing out that Luffy might not ever be a great swimmer.

Dark, perpetually coursing with an ice-cold breeze, and heavy with the stench of human preservatives, the entire island looked like something out of one of Robin's horror novels, with a thick layer of fog like a funeral shroud draping over the miles of brambles and gothic architecture.

"What a lovely day," Robin said cheerfully.

The cyborg walking beside her looked at her like she'd suddenly turned purple.

"Man, I can't see anything in this fog!" Luffy hollered from the back of the giant beast he had tamed at the gates. Cerberus snorted, one of its heads craning to lick the boy on its back.

"I'll retrace our steps and mark a trail." The green-haired swordsman meandered a few steps to the left.

Sanji grabbed him by the shoulder, yanking him back towards the group. "Don't even think about it, dipshit. That's not even the right way."

"Tch... don't come crying to me when you can't find your way back to the damn ship…"

"Well, I'm not the one who's directionally retarded, marimo. Look, we turned right at that hollow tree—wait, no, I mean _that_ hollow tree—no…" Sanji paused, furrowing his brow. "… God damn it."

"Oh my. It seems we're lost." Robin said nonchalantly.

"… Crap. Alright, alright, it's fine, we'll figure it out. Let's just keep moving." Franky loaded Weapons Left, muttering curses under his breath.

Sanji stamped out his cigarette with a shiny black shoe. "Is it me, or is this fog getting thicker?"

"Whoa, you guys, I can't even see the dog's heads in front of me anymore!"

"Okay, everybody stay close to Cerberus. We don't wanna get separated," Franky placed a palm on the large animal's foreleg.

"My, the markings on these tombstones are quite antiquated…"

"Damn it, Nico Robin, c'mere!"

Without thinking, he reached out into the fog and grabbed her hand.

It took him a moment to realize what he had done. Then he blurted out some unintelligible noise, dropping her hand like it had burned him and thanking god she couldn't see how red his face was through the fog.

"Franky?! What happened?!" Luffy yelled unnecessarily loudly from beside him.

"Uh… I stepped in a sinkhole, but it's fine! I-I just—uh…"

But all of a sudden he couldn't focus on anything, overwhelmed by the sensation of her soft, lithe fingers sliding back into his hand, weaving between his own. Her arm pressed against his, making his heart do some strange, unfamiliar acrobatic routine in his chest.

She was just so _warm_.

When the heavy white haze around them finally started to clear a bit, she let go (too soon), and his hands had never felt so cold and clammy. He turned to look at her face, opening his mouth to say something—but she was already several steps ahead of him, walking toward the fortress on the horizon with the others.

"Thank God we're past _that_ ," Sanji muttered, lighting a fresh cigarette.

"Speak for yourself. I was enjoying not having to look at you."

"Fuck off, marimo!"

"Yosh! Let's head for that castle!"

"Be careful, Luffy. It would be terrible if you fell off that dog and broke your neck."

"O-oi, Nico Robin—"

But the group had already strolled away, bickering and yelling and going about their business as usual, leaving Franky to stare incredulously at the back of the woman whose hand he had just been holding. He let out a long sigh, shook it off, and followed his crewmates, reminding himself over and over again that _not everything has to mean something, not everything has to mean something, not everything has to mean something…_

He was so lost in his mantra that he completely missed the quick glance she snuck him over her shoulder, the blush on her cheeks, and the hurried way she looked away before anyone was the wiser.


	7. Advice

_Summary_

Nami seeks Robin's counsel.

 _Notes_

(Warning: includes some shameless LuNa + references to sexual content.)

* * *

 _7\. Advice_

"Robin, can I ask you a personal question?"

The older woman's blue eyes flicked upward, meeting Nami's with their usual quiet thoughtfulness. "Yes?"

"Well… ah, how do I put this… " Nami shifted uncomfortably in her corner of the women's bath, running a hand through her long red hair. "… why did you… _pick_ Franky? Of all people, I mean."

Robin chuckled. "Well, 'pick' is an odd choice of words…"

"I-I didn't mean anything by it!" the navigator insisted. "I'm just… well, I'm curious. Do you ever get frustrated with all his… uh…"

"Eccentricities?" Robin tilted her head, a peculiar smile on her lips.

" _Yes_ , thank you."

"Naturally."

"Oh, thank god. Okay," Nami breathed, grateful for her friend's understanding. "… So, I guess what I'm asking is, where do you draw the line between what's kinda cute and what's just a pain the ass? Like the no-pants thing, for example. I mean, what the hell is up with _that_?"

Robin smirked devilishly. "Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, I find it rather convenient…"

"Oh my god, STOP."

"Fufufufu."

Nami blushed, frowning poutily at a corner of the room like she was punishing it for disappointing her.

"But to answer your question, I don't think that distinction is important when you're intimate with someone."

Nami blinked, meeting her eyes with a perplexed expression. "What does that mean?"

Robin paused for a moment, staring into space with a far- off smile. "… To me, falling in love is finding someone who makes you feel bold enough to break all the world's rules. Whether they're rules about what is normal, what is romantic, what is beautiful, or even what is sane—soon those rules stop darkening the way you look at the world, because there's someone in your life who brings you light."

The navigator fell uncharacteristically silent. Robin smiled.

"You love Luffy."

"Wha—"

"Don't be afraid to let him love you, even if he doesn't go about it in the way you might expect."

Nami's face was as red as her hair. "… N-Not that I do, but if I did… I don't know if he'd even have a clue."

"Hmm. Well, sometimes you have to make yourself… _painfully_ clear. Remember Water 7?"

"… I'm not gonna manhandle him in front of an entire town."

"Suit yourself. Fufufu."

They sat in the water for a moment, a haze of steam and a thoughtful silence hanging in the air between them.

Nami was the first to speak. "… So, I'm like 90% sure I'm going to regret asking this, but it's been bugging me forever. Is Franky… human _down there_?"

Robin raised her eyebrows.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, that's way too personal. Forget I said anything."

"No, it's a perfectly natural question to ask," the older woman said with a genuine smile that made Nami instantly more uncomfortable. "… But yes. With the upgrades, one might say he's _super_ -human 'down there.'"

"… I hate you sometimes, you know."

"Fufufu."


	8. Bet

_Summary_

During the final battle at Nebulandia, Robin's post-traumatic stress gets her into trouble.

 _Notes_

Adventure of Nebulandia was good, but I was disappointed we didn't get to see Franky vs. Dojaku (or any kind of Dojaku fight, for that matter.) So I wrote this little insert scene, which is set while Luffy is fighting Komei. :)

* * *

 _8\. Bet_

There weren't many circumstances in the world capable of rattling Nico Robin. But even the stoic archaeologist couldn't deny that the events of Nebulandia—watching her friends fall one by one, losing her powers, getting captured, seeing her captain get shot in the head, hearing that the man she loved had been electrocuted, and being _chained up next to his lifeless body_ — had left her more than a little shell-shocked.

All she wanted was to go back to the Sunny, where her biggest worry was losing more money to Nami and her ridiculous bets. (The navigator had recently discovered that Robin would always defend Franky's honor against her own better judgment, and the younger woman had been milking that knowledge for every berry it was worth.)

But for now she was _here_ , on this cursed island. And even after discovering that Franky and Luffy were alive and well, she was still in something of a daze when the fighting broke out between the marines and the Straw Hats—so much so that she didn't even hear Dojaku sneak up behind her in the middle of her battle with a horde of soldiers, grabbing her arms and covering her mouth to prevent her from using her abilities.

"You really shouldn't make yourself such an easy target, Nico Robin," the marine shipwright snarled into her ear. "It puts you and that tactless buffoon you're screwing in a whole world of danger."

She squirmed helplessly in his grasp, wanting nothing more than to break his spine in half, praying that her lover wouldn't take the bait and do something characteristically headstrong. Dojaku chuckled, dragging her toward the ruins of the enormous machinated naval base he was so proud of.

As if sensing her plight, Franky, who was currently fending off a whole marine squad single-handedly, whipped around to face them with horror in his eyes. "ROBIN!"

"Come quietly or I'll break her neck, cyborg! You're gonna be drafting up ships for me from Impel Down for the rest of your miserable life!" Dojaku bellowed, grinning wildly.

Robin shook her head, eyes wide with terror, willing Franky to _let it go._

The cyborg froze for a moment, eyes dark.

"… I'm disappointed, Dojaku. I was starting to think you were a pretty smart guy."

"Who do you think you're talking to?!" Dojaku shouted, visibly irked. "I've surpassed you as a shipwright, and now I'm going to be the one to put you in prison!"

"… You don't get it at all, do you? The second you messed with Robin, you super-wrecked any chance you had of getting on my level."

"What are you—"

"NIPPLE LASERBEAM!"

Before Dojaku had a chance to move, two red bullets of light blasted into his eyes with startling accuracy with a loud searing noise that made even Franky cringe. The marine dropped Robin immediately, holding his hands over his eyes and screaming in agony. The surrounding troops ran to his side, and several panicked-looking men dragged him away, yelling for the combat medic while their charge screeched about being blinded by a cyborg's nipples.

Robin straightened her jacket, breathlessly turning to look at the man who had just rescued her. He ran to her side, supporting her back and grabbing her hand. "Shit, Robin, I'm so sorry about that!"

She clutched his hand gently, lost for words. "Did you just… blind him?"

Franky laughed breathlessly. "Nah, he'll be fine in a week or two. I'd never permanently wreck a fellow craftsman's instruments. More importantly, are you okay? I was worried…"

She stared at him for a moment—battered and bruised and covered in burn marks, but still holding her and staring at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered—and she beamed, grabbing his face and pulling him in for a passionate kiss. He made a muffled noise of shock before closing his eyes, lifting her up off the ground and returning the embrace in earnest.

After a long moment, she broke away, leaning her forehead against his with a look of total relief on her face. "I knew I was right to bet on you."

He grinned. "Well, you're always right, but it also helps that I'm always super." He gave her another quick kiss. "Now let's get the hell off this island."

"I'd like that," she said with a sweet smile.

So he bent down to pick her up like a princess, engaged his centaur form, and rode off into the sunrise with his lady in his arms.


	9. First Time

_Summary_

After Thriller Bark, Franky gets an unexpected visitor in his new cabin.

 _Notes_

WARNING: Delicious, fluffy smut (sort of.)

* * *

 _9\. First Time_

The first night after Thriller Bark, the Straw Hats had dinner together as a group of nine for the very first time— and it was immediately clear that things would be different in the best possible way from that night on. Amidst all the laughter and chatter and roughhousing over the biggest piece of seaking meat, the sound of music in the air was a change Franky in particular could appreciate. Plus, he caught Robin bouncing her foot along with Brook's violin melody under the table several times that night, which made him feel dizzy and chuckle for no reason.

Once Luffy had fallen asleep on his plate, the subject of living arrangements arose, as Brook was officially part of the crew and would need a place to stay. Of course, Sanji insisted he would gladly give up his cot in the boys' cabin and sleep on the floor of the girls' room, but Zoro quickly shot this idea down by punching him a little harder than usual on the top of his head. Eventually Franky volunteered to sleep in his workshop, which no one seemed to have a problem with, so the subject quickly fizzled out and everyone headed to bed.

Franky opened the workshop door and let out a long, happy exhale, already embracing this as a permanent arrangement—after all, he now had his own room right next to the engine room, so it was always warm, and he didn't have to worry about waking up to the sound of Usopp's snoring, or Luffy stepping on his face with a bare rubber foot on nights when the captain snuck out to raid the galley.

As he rolled out the spare mattress on the floor of his new bedroom, he heard three soft knocks at the door, and heaved an exhausted sigh. "For the last time, Skeleton-bro, I'm not going to peep on the girls' cabin and neither are you. Go to bed, you old perver-"

 _Creak_. Franky whipped around, preparing to berate the skeleton for opening the door uninvited when he finally had a room with some goddamn privacy—but his mouth hung open when he saw who his guest was.

"Pardon the intrusion," Robin said with a smirk, clearly enjoying the startled look on his face as she casually leaned on the doorframe.

"O-oh, Nico Robin!" He stood up hurriedly, rushing to gather some of the building materials strewn haphazardly across the floor. "I-I thought you were... What's up?"

"Well, I thought I'd come visit you in your new home," she said serenely, crossing to his desk and perching neatly on his drafting seat, which was draped in a particularly loud pink Hawaiian shirt.

Franky picked up some of the loose sheets of paper scattered on the floor, shoving them behind a lumber bin and grinning casually. "Pretty sweet, right? I mean, my mugi-bros are great and all, but it's gonna be super to have a little bit of Franky-time for once," he said cheerfully, patting the wood paneling on the wall and knocking down a poster of a North Blue rock band. He pretended not to notice, mentally cursing his own clumsiness.

Robin crossed her legs, giving him a ( _super hot_ ) glimpse of the black garter topping her thigh-high stockings, and it took every bit of what little self-control Franky possessed to stop himself from staring. "I also wanted to thank you," she said coolly, clasping her hands over her knee.

He blinked. "Uh... for what, exactly?"

"For protecting me today."

Her quiet, stormy eyes didn't move from his, and he had never felt more transparent than he did right at that moment, heart racing in his chest. He laughed nervously, rubbing his neck out of habit. "… Lady, we both know you don't need my protection, or anyone else's, for that matter."

"But it's appreciated. And you've been doing it since Enies Lobby, which I never properly thanked you for."

His face turned scarlet. "… H-have I?"

"From the moment I met you, in fact."

He stared at her for a moment—then cleared his throat loudly, focusing hard on one of the floorboards as he spoke. "W-well, it wasn't just me, I mean, we'd both be dead if Mugiwara-bro hadn't beaten the snot out of that giant cat. I just… all my life, I heard these horror stories about Nico Robin, the Devil's Child, and then I met you, and it made me feel awful to think that I'd ever believed those stories in the first place because I liked you right away—"

"You liked me?" She asked with a tone of genuine thoughtfulness, raising her eyebrows a bit. He felt his heart hit the pit of his stomach.

"Uh… y-yeah? B-but not like, in a perverted way. Not to say that I wasn't a… a-attracted to you, I mean, you're gorgeous, but, uh… I wasn't thinking anything… inappropriate."

She chuckled—and the sound made him feel weak in the knees. "You've never struck me as the kind of man who cares much for what's appropriate."

"Ah… haha… nothing gets past you, does it? … But that's not why I wanted to help you. I just thought you seemed… sweet."

To his great surprise, she turned bright pink at this.

"I-in a good way! I like sweet."

She paused, pensive, before speaking in a quiet voice.

"… I like sweet, too."

He felt his heart leap in his chest, and his face broke out into an uncontrollable smile. "You do?"

She stood up, and every step she took toward him made his heart beat a little faster and his head feel a little lighter, until she was only a few inches away from his face and all he could do was hold his breath.

"I do. And for what it's worth," she said quietly, gently pulling at the material of his Hawaiian shirt and staring at the metal lining of his chest. " _I_ might have been thinking something… inappropriate back then."

He froze, and all the blood rushed to his unmentionables. "O-oh. Is that so?"

"Mmm." She smiled up at him, and her mouth was amazing, and before he could even think straight he was cupping her jaw in his hands and kissing her hard.

Immediately, her tongue was exploring every corner of his mouth, and she smelled like flowers and tasted like coffee and her skin was the softest he'd ever felt and he wondered for a second if he was having the world's hottest dream. He let his hands rest on her waist as she backed him into the drafting table, forcing him to lean on the surface behind him—and before he had a chance to worry about the blueprints he was sitting on, she was straddling his lap and he felt like he might faint.

"I've wanted this from the moment I saw you," she whispered when they finally broke apart, several pairs of hands rubbing his back sensually.

"A… are you sure?" He panted, still not quite able to believe what was happening as she started sucking on his jaw. "I mean, not to sound ungrateful, or anything, because God, you're amazing, but… wh-why me, exactly?"

She took his face in her hands and looked him straight in the eyes, smirking. "Because you're not the only one who knows what they want when they see it."

"I just… wow…"

"Stop talking."

He took this as an invitation to grab her thighs roughly, pulling her flush against him, and he started nipping at her neck, listening closely to find out what she liked. She let out a little gasp when he hit a particularly sensitive spot above her collarbone—which made the situation in his briefs about a hundred times worse—and he made a mental note to get her to do that a _lot_ more in the future. She pulled him in for another kiss and let her hands run wild all over him, making him moan throatily into her mouth.

"We'll have to keep it down if we don't want them to hear us." She said breathlessly when they finally broke apart, biting her lip a little when he let out a hot _sigh_ on her neck.

He looked her up and down, raising his eyebrows. "Ahaha… I don't know if I can promise you that, lady."

She smiled, pulling his shirt over his shoulders, letting him discard it somewhere on the floor. "Oh, is that so…?" She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. "I should have known you were a screamer."

His leg twitched uncontrollably. This woman might be the death of him.

"Alright, c'mere," he growled, and she giggled and folded her legs neatly around his torso when he picked her up, carrying her over to the cot. "We'll see how quiet you can stay when I do this…"

* * *

Later that night, curled up in Franky's arms under a sheet, Robin gave him a long, gentle kiss on the cheek before sitting up and feeling around on the floor for her clothes.

"Mmmm… do you have to go?" the cyborg murmured sleepily, reaching out with a big hand to touch the soft skin of her back.

She smiled over her shoulder, fastening her brassiere. "I do. It would be terrible if Nami found my bed empty, assumed we had some casual, tawdry arrangement, and started plotting your violent murder."

"That's fair, I guess." He said with a pout, watching her get dressed with a far-off look in his eyes.

"… Though, she'd be wrong."

"… Eh? What's that mean?"

She beamed, slowly easing back on top of him. "Ask me again someday," she whispered, leaning in for another kiss, which he eagerly returned.

When their lips parted, he kept his hands on her hips, unconsciously massaging her skin with his thumbs. "… S-so does that mean we're gonna… keep doing this? I-I mean I'd like to, if you would, because tonight was… well, it was…"

"Super?" She said coyly with an arch of her eyebrow.

He turned beet red, laughing nervously, looking at her with a mixture of awe and amusement and attraction and something else he couldn't quite place. "Y-yeah. Yeah, it was."

She smiled sweetly. "I thought so, too."

A thought hung on the tip of his tongue for a second—but that would be a crazy thing to say, he reminded himself hastily. He wasn't going to drive her away now, in this fleeting moment of post-coital ecstasy, while all of this was so new and unbelievable. At this point, he wasn't even sure if he'd wake up tomorrow and realize he'd never left Water 7, never met the boy in the straw hat who was willing to destroy the whole world for this woman, never met her and instantly understood why.

So he just kissed her with a big grin, simultaneously enjoying the feeling of her lips on his, and stopping himself from saying something stupid like _I think I'm in love with you._ Because for now, this was enough.

And from then on, it was everything.


	10. Yours Sincerely

_Summary_

The first letters they wrote after they were separated at Sabaody.

 _Notes_

Why are they using code names? - In case the Marines intercept their mailbirds, of course! :)

* * *

 _10\. Yours Sincerely_

 _My dear Mr. Flam,_

 _I hope this letter reaches you and finds you well. It would be dreadful if an airborne predator swooped in and ate the mailbird carrying my message to you, especially after my undercover colleagues and I searched for you for so many weeks._

 _Today I finally received notice that you were alive and well, and I could contact you at this address. This letter is a testament to my faith in the intelligence unit of the organization I am currently training with. Sadly, that is as specific as I can be in a letter—the point being that I am safe and sound, though I miss you quite terribly._

 _There is no denying that these two years apart will be difficult, and I won't ask you to wait for me when we've only been together for two months. But I care about you very much, so I still selfishly hope that you will._

 _Please take good care of yourself, Mr. Flam. I will eagerly await your reply._

 _Miss All-Sunday_

* * *

 _To the GORGEOUS_ _Miss All-Sunday!_

 _If you were here, I'd sing you a song about all the SUPER POWERFUL FEELINGS I felt when I got your letter! And then we'd probably make out a lot. I'm_ _NOT_ _crying as I write this, it's just very humid here in tropical Barujimoa, which might make it look like the paper got kind of wet with tears, which it didn't._

 _I'm not good with words, but here's a drawing of where I live right now. It's not as nice as my cabin at home, or as warm, but it's okay. I miss you a lot though. I still wake up at night thinking I hear you knocking on my door, but it's usually just noise from the lab. (By the way, the lab is UNBELIEVABLE. The upgrades I'm planning for BF-37 are gonna blow your mind!)_

 _Also, here's a drawing of us naked. AOW!_

 _CUTTY_

 _P.S. I'D WAIT FOR YOU FOREVER_


	11. Caught

_Summary_

Sanji walks in on something private and struggles with his reaction.

 _Notes_

I can't even talk about how cute Sanji and Franky's friendship is. :'D WARNING: Language, sexual content, and ZoSan (natch)

* * *

 _11\. Caught_

At the beginning, Robin and Franky agreed to be discreet about their newfound relationship, even when it came to their extremely nosy crewmates.

It went well for about a week—all the knowing little glances, the playful touches, walking side by side at the back of the group so they could hold hands unnoticed, passionate late-night rendezvous in Franky's workshop while the rest of the crew was fast asleep—but then one day he pulled her into the galley supply room before lunch, and they were both half-undressed when Sanji came looking for an extra tomato.

No one breathed for a few seconds. Then the cook bolted in silence, leaving the couple to stare, dumbfounded, in his wake.

Franky turned to look at her, hands still resting on her lower back. "Should I…?"

"Yes." She nodded emphatically, visibly unnerved.

That was all the incentive he needed to throw on his shirt, scramble out onto the deck, and run up to Sanji, who was leaning heavily on the mast with his back to the cyborg. The elder of the two sighed, steeling himself for what was bound to be an unpleasant conversation.

"Listen, Sanji—"

" _Don't_."

Franky winced at his friend's quiet, harsh tone. "… Look, I'm really sorry you found out like this, man. We should have told you sooner."

Sanji turned sharply to meet his gaze, and the shipwright was shocked when he noticed the younger man's terse, exhausted expression. "Oh come on, are you really gonna start with that?"

"I mean, I just figured you—"

"I'm not blind, you jackass. I've known about you and Robin-chan from the very beginning."

"… Y-you have?"

"Of course. I also know everyone's expecting me to throw a huge shitty tantrum about it, and if I don't, they'll want to know why not, and I'm just not in the mood for any of that shit."

"… I'm confused. Why are you so… relaxed about this?"

"That's just it. I have no fucking idea," the cook sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I mean, from the moment I met them, Robin and Nami have been everything to me, and now one of them is in love with someone else, so theoretically I should feel like complete shit right now, right? The Sanji you know would want to fillet you and feed you to the dogs, wouldn't he?"

Franky stared at him in horror. "… Um. I mean, I'd _hope_ not…"

Sanji twirled his cigarette between two fingers, hiding his expression behind the curtain of blonde that hung over his eyes.

"… So, if you're not mad, then… what's got you so worked up, Cook-bro?"

The younger man paused for another long moment. Then, out of nowhere, he slammed his foot into the mast, making Franky jump and let out a yelp when the whole deck shook from the impact. "I'M JUST." _Kick_. "SO." _Kick_. "FUCKING." _Kick_. "HAPPY." _Kick_. "FOR YOU." _Kick_. "AND I DON'T." _Kick_. "KNOW WHY!" _Kick kick ki-CRACK._

The mast split at its base, creaked ominously, and started falling like a timber at the young chef's feet. The shipwright let out a horrified scream, running and catching the enormous wooden piece just before it plunged into the ocean, mustering all his strength to pull it back upright on its stump.

"Shit! Franky, hang on!"

"LEFT THIGHSIDE COMPARTMENT," Franky shouted through gritted teeth, struggling to hold the mast in place—and his crewmate obliged, quickly pushing a button on the cyborg's leg. A door swung open, revealing a metal toolbox where Franky's femur should have been, and Sanji picked out a hammer and a set of metal braces to hand to the shipwright, taking on the weight of the mast as he did so. The cyborg fashioned a temporary support for the broken beam with his trademark lightning construction speed, all the while muttering something that sounded like "third goddamn time this month" under his breath.

"… Sorry about that." Sanji mumbled, letting go of the re-attached mast with an uncomfortable expression.

"It's fine," Franky sighed, putting away his hammer. "… Just… tell me what's going on with you. And don't break the damn ship when you do it."

Blue eyes glassed over, and for a moment the normally stoic, hardened, mature cook actually looked like the 19-year-old youth he was. He took a deep breath before breaking the silence. "… I've always loved Robin and Nami. I was so sure I wanted them all to myself. But then I found out about you two, and I realized I didn't really feel that way about her, and now I think there's someone else I really want to… be with. Exclusively, I mean."

Franky's mouth hung open in spite of himself. "You're kidding me."

Sanji fell silent, a bright red glow on his cheeks.

The older man laughed breathlessly. "Wow. I mean, no offense, but I never thought you'd be a one-woman kind of guy." He raised his eyebrows, grinning. "So, do I know the superrrrr lucky lady?"

"… Mm."

"Well, dish, man! Who is she?"

"Look, it's not gonna happen, so it's stupid to even talk about it."

"… Can you at least tell me what she's like?"

Sanji thought for a moment. "She… she's an idiot. She's an idiot and I hate her."

Franky's mouth hung agape. Sanji _never_ spoke ill of a woman.

"And she has stupid hair, and no goddamn appreciation for the subtle art of romance, and she's completely self-absorbed, lazy, drunk, reckless… brave… loyal… really funny when she wants to be… did I mention the stupid hair?"

"… Heh. No, I don't think you did."

Sanji stared out into the stillness of the bright blue horizon, scratching his blonde head absently. "The point is, there's no reason for me to want to be with this person, especially compared to all the beautiful ladies I know. But I see you with Robin, and no matter how much I try and talk myself out of it… all I want to do is make _him_ as happy as you make her."

Finally hearing what he needed to hear, Franky cracked a huge, knowing smile. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, just don't… talk about it with Robin. I don't want her or Nami-san to think they're less important to me than that asshole."

"Your secret's safe with me, bro," Franky patted his friend on the back heartily, a fond expression on his face. "But if you like somebody that much, the best thing you can do is tell 'em. Trust me, it's super worth it."

"… Thanks, Franky."

"Anytime, yo," he wandered off toward the cabin where Robin was waiting, shooting a smile over his shoulder as he walked. "… By the way… you said 'him.'"

The shipwright couldn't help but smile wider, walk taller, and feel prouder when he heard the _hiss_ of the cook's cigarette falling onto the deck.


	12. Parents

_Summary_

Twelve years after the battle for the One Piece, two of the Straw Hats' children have a battle of their own.

 _Notes_

Shameless, babies-ever-after fluff, told in slice-of-life snapshots. Half ZoSan, half Frobin, with a hint of LuNa. Happy New Year! :)

* * *

 _12\. Parents_

"ZORO."

"Hrmph… what do you want, Franky?"

"WILL YOU EXPLAIN TO ME WHY MY KID HAS A BLACK EYE AFTER HANGING OUT WITH YOUR KID FOR TEN MINUTES?"

"… oh, fuck. KUINA!"

* * *

The little girl called Kuina had short green hair, topped with a frayed old black bandana she inherited from her father— and she was literally the spitting image of Zoro when she hocked a loogey onto the deck, arms crossed and her nose scrunched up poutily. "What's the big deal?"

Her father sighed and ran a hand through his hair—moss-green, like hers, with flecks of silver courtesy of his age plus the six years of stress he had endured since his daughter was born. He stared across the booth table at her, wondering if he was just as sloppy and rude when he was her age, and praying Sanji wouldn't notice the wad of spit on his clean floor. "You can't just deck boys in the face for no reason, Kuina. We've talked about this."

"Whatever! Daddy said—"

"Oh shit, I should have known. COOK, C'MERE."

The door to the Baratie's kitchen swung open, revealing an exhausted-looking 34-year-old Sanji, with a knife in his hand and his shoulder-length blonde hair in a tussle. "I'm prepping for the dinner rush, what do you want?"

"Your kid punched Tom in the face."

Sanji lit up, sticking the knife into the wall before skipping over to little Kuina with hearts in his eyes. "You did?! My little angel is so strong and cute! Was that creepy brat hitting on you, baby girl?"

"Cook, for god's sake, they're _six_. And it's _Tom_."

Sanji frowned, muttering into his partner's ear just quietly enough so their daughter wouldn't hear him. "We're talking about _Franky's son_ , marimo. How long do you think that little shit will be able to keep his pants on before he starts screaming perverted things and landing an inexplicably hot wife, confounding the laws of nature and ruining my whole life?"

Zoro glared at him. "Talk to her."

"… Fine. Kuina, baby, why did you hit Tom?"

"'Cuz he's an asshole."

" _Language_ ," Sanji interjected, and despite the fact that he was talking to his daughter, his eyes fixed pointedly on Zoro with an obvious note of _'this is your fault.'_

"You said if a boy does something I don't like, I can cut him, but I didn't have my swords with me." Kuina grumbled, picking at a scab on her elbow.

" _So he did do something?_!" Sanji burst into flames, voice deepening several octaves as the Satanic rage overtook him. " _TELL ME WHAT HE DID. I'LL GUT THAT PIECE OF SHIT LIKE A TUNA._ "

Zoro smirked. " _Language_."

"MARIMO, I SWEAR TO GOD—"

"It wasn't a big deal, okay?!" Kuina blurted, cheeks turning bright red as she stared at her feet. "... He said he liked my eyebrows. And I know I have weird eyebrows, so I decked 'im for makin' fun of me."

Both her fathers' heads snapped to look at her.

Sanji blinked, clearly a little wounded. "Why would you say that? Your eyebrows are just like your daddy's, see?" He pushed back the blonde shade that covered his right eye, revealing the spiral brows that had become his trademark.

Kuina pulled her bandana over her eyes, whining in agony, and Zoro had to hold his breath to stop himself from bursting out laughing. "You're not helping, Daddy."

"... Marimo, shut the hell up and ground her." He sighed, skulking through the kitchen doorway to resume his work. "Now where the fuck are my cigarettes..."

* * *

"MY BABY BOYYYYYY!"

"Sweetheart, calm down. The swelling will go down and he'll be all better by the end of the week."

The raven haired, blue-eyed little boy smiled calmly at his mother, who was crouched on the bathroom floor, dabbing at his wounded eye with a wet rag while Franky held him in his lap on the toilet. "I hope it doesn't get infected and permanently blind me in one eye like Uncle Zoro," Tom chirped, clasping his hands in his lap properly.

Franky howled, rocking his son back and forth and sobbing through an impromptu song about how everything was going to be SUPER OK.

Robin chuckled, meeting her boy's eyes—identical to hers, both in their color and their quiet, pensive gaze. "Yes, that would be terrible. But you're going to be just fine."

At that moment, a scrawny, bespectacled, blue-haired little girl of about ten, wearing a purple tutu and t-shirt that said "SUPER" in humongous, glittering letters, skidded into the doorway with a book in her hand and a panicked look in her bright cyan eyes. "Where's my little bro?! Tommy! Tommy, what happened?!"

"Hello," Tom said blithely, beaming despite his injury and his father's bear-like grip.

"OLVIA! There's my girl! Kuina looks up to you, right?! Go tell her she's a little shit and she'll super-pay for blinding your brother!"

"It's just a black eye, dear. Your father's being dramatic." Robin insisted, holding Franky's hand between two of her own and tending to Tom's eye with a third.

"Oh, that's good. 'Cause Ace told me she gouged his eye out with Wado." Olvia reached out to poke at her brother's swollen eye curiously, stopping only when another one of her mother's hands appeared to gently push hers away.

Robin pursed her lips. "… Well, you know Ace. He inherited his mother's gift for trickery."

"Why would anyone want to hurt my Tommy, anyway?" Franky said with a sniff and a frown, finally collecting himself enough to speak at a normal volume and pinch his son's cheeks lovingly. "I mean, look how cute he is!"

"I told her I thought she had pretty eyebrows. She told me to jump off Skypiea," the little boy said serenely, staring into the distance with a far-off smile.

"Oh my," Robin chuckled. "Could this be little Kuina's first crush?"

Everyone stared at her blankly for a moment. Then Olvia squealed and Franky burst out laughing, both of them blurting "Tommy's got a girlfriend!" in unison. Tom just gave a sunny smile in response, quietly murmuring, "oh, how nice…" under the commotion.

"So do you like her?! Huh?! Do you?!" his sister asked giddily, practically swooning. "Ohh, I love childhood friend romances! They always make the best books!"

"Atta boy, Tommy! She's a little firecracker, but whatever you're doing, it's SUPERRRR WORKING!"

Robin just smoothed her son's hair, smiling fondly at him. "Do be careful, though, dear. You'll need to be patient and try not to hurt her if you want to keep your kneecaps."

Franky grinned, instinctively offering a hand to his wife as she got to her feet. "I mean, I can't say I'm surprised she's like this. Her dads were the same way when they first realized _they_ liked boys…"

Olvia responded with a characteristically loud "what's that mean?" while her little brother tilted his head to one side. Their parents looked at each other.

"Uh, we'll talk about it later, Ollie," Franky said hastily, patting his daughter on the back. "… Hey, wanna help me install a laser cannon in a rowboat?!"

"SUPERRRRR!"

"Be careful not to vaporize any seagulls with it…"

"Hmm. Run along, Tom, they'll need you to keep an eye on them."

The boy toddled to his father's side, silently taking his huge hand with his own tiny one- and Franky picked him up and placed him on his shoulders, making him squeal with delight, while babbling with Olvia about a spaceship they were planning to assemble and fly to Mars. From the doorway, Robin watched her husband walk away, admiring the little family they had built together, wondering how it was possible that she had been blessed with such cosmic, unbelievable luck.

She shook her head with a chuckle, touching her stomach lightly, and her voice was just above a whisper when she said, "Now, how on earth are we going to tell them about _you_...?"


	13. 2-6

_Summary:_

Robin gets an unexpected birthday gift from Franky.  
(set between Water 7 and Thriller Bark)

 _Notes:_

BECAUSE HE WOULD.

A little late, but it's here! Thank you all so much for your incredibly kind comments, you always know how to warm my heart. C:

* * *

 _13\. 2/6_

The concept gift-giving was not something Nico Robin was accustomed to.

Even as a child under her aunt and uncle's care, she had never received presents – in fact, she wasn't even sure if her caregivers knew the date of her birthday. It didn't bother young Robin—she was content to read her books in peace, and rarely wanted anything she couldn't forage from the treasure trove that was the Ohara Library.

As she grew older and started her life on the run, she began to associate gifts with bribery. A gift meant someone wanted something from her, whether it was to take her money, or frame her, or trap her with some unspeakable proposition. She quickly learned that gifts were treacherous—dangerous, even—and her opinion was only reinforced during her partnership with Crocodile, who gave her expensive clothing and jewelry as part of his elaborate attempts to gain her trust. (Though judging by the revealing nature of the garments, she was fairly certain the 'gifts' were more for him than they were for her.) That changed with the Straw Hats, who always celebrated birthdays with a little party, but the gnawing instinct to reject such gestures was always looming in the back of her mind.

So when she found Franky outside her cabin door on the morning of February 6th-silently holding out a tiny blue box in his huge palm with a red-hot blush on his cheeks—she was understandably a little taken aback.

"... fer you." He mumbled, covering as much of his face as he could with one hand and extending his gift to her with the other. "… hrpy brfdy."

She shifted, tightening the belt of her purple bathrobe unconsciously. "What?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY," he blurted entirely too loudly, continuing to avoid her gaze and waving the hand that held the gift in her general direction.

Robin reached out tentatively, gently picking up the box between two fingers like it might explode at her touch, and held it carefully in her palms for inspection. It was unclear how Franky, with his enormous hands, had managed to wrap such a delicate little thing—he had even used his prized blueprint paper as giftwrap, and painstakingly bandaged the spots where he had accidentally torn the grid-lined packaging with little slivers of tape.

She was silent for a few long moments, staring uncomprehendingly at the bright red bow and the slip of paper that said "NICO ROBIN" in Franky's untidy scrawl, before she managed to catch her breath. "… Ah… thank you."

Franky glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, finally straightening up and clearing his throat—then he paused, shifting uncomfortably on his bare feet. Robin could see that he was sweating bullets. "Uhh… a-aren't you going to open it?"

"Hmm?"

"Your present-"

"Oh. Yes." She nodded, a little flustered, and gingerly began to remove the paper with the edge of her fingernail, doing her best not to tear his handiwork.

Franky's mouth twitched into a smile at the sight, his shoulders visibly relaxing a little. "… Oi… You can just rip it, you know…"

She glanced up at him, a little startled. "… I know," she said unconvincingly—then returned to peeling the paper off with a little more urgency.

When she finally removed all the trimmings and lifted the lid of the little brown box, Robin took in a sharp, shocked breath. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn it was the exact same medallion—a wooden emblem of a forget-me-not hanging from a purple ribbon—that Professor Clover had given her when she was 8 years old. _The mark of a scholar._

Franky was blushing again. "Y-You said you lost yours in Ohara, so I figured you needed a new one. You're our archaeologist, after all."

Her eyes darted back and forth between his face and the wooden medallion, stunned utterly soundless.

"N-not that this could ever replace the real thing. And I don't know how good of a replica it is, because there aren't any real ones left in the world, so I had to compile all the descriptions of the symbol I could find in writing. If nothing else, I found out how rare books about Ohara are… but, ah, you know that already. Um…"

She stared at him with wide eyes.

Franky 's face was turning redder by the second, and he continued babbling to fill the void of her silence. "… A-and I kept some of the scrap lumber from when I tried to fix the Merry in Water 7. That's what it's carved out of. I-I thought Merry'd be happy to be part of your memento. Is that weird? I-"

"Franky..."

He choked on his words at the sound of his name, alarmed by the strangled, weak tone in Robin's normally smooth, clear voice, and he immediately panicked when he saw the glimmer of tears running down her cheeks. "Oh, shit! Oh god, I'm so sorry, Nico Robin, I didn't mean to—"

She ran straight into his chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him with the sudden force of her 8-armed embrace. He froze for a moment, pulse hammering in his ears, before resting one hand on her back, clutching her head safely against his heart with the other.

"Thank you," she said quietly, burying her face in the fabric of his Hawaiian shirt.

"H… hey, no problem." He gasped, patting her head lightly—and he couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to hold her like this all the time. "What're nakama for, right?"

She hugged him a little tighter in response. He might have started glowing.

"… If you liked that, you're not gonna believe the cake Sanji made. I think he's got me beat, uh, birthday-wise…"

She beamed up at him, wiping away a stray tear. "Somehow I doubt that."

A long moment passed, and Franky could practically hear all the parts of his brain screaming at him in unison to _just kiss her_. Instead, he cleared his throat shakily, giving her shoulder an awkward squeeze as he tried desperately to look at anything but her lips.

"Ahem… so, uh… happy birthday, Nico Robin."

She nodded knowingly—then tugged at his shirt collar, lifted herself up on her tiptoes, and pecked him on the cheek.

Incidentally, Robin and Franky would both remember that February 6th as the day they received the best gifts of their lives.


	14. Burnt

_Summary:_

Found in the infirmary on Valentine's Day.

 _Notes:_

HEHEHEH.

*yes, the years I wrote on the dates are totally arbitrary.

* * *

 _14\. Burnt_

EMERGENCY CONSULTATION– 2/14/1734  
Tony Tony Chopper, M.D.

Name: CYBORG, FRANKY  
Patient No. 8  
DOB: 3/9/1697  
Sex: M

SUMMARY:  
Patient presents severe burns covering most of face and anterior torso, describes injury occurring during "super romantic Valentine's Day setup." Investigation reveals patient lit ~50 sparklers in lieu of candles around bedroom, turned on stereo, stripped nude, and accidentally blowtorched himself with rose-scented perfume next to open flame. Smell of smoke and sound of funk music alerted spouse (P.7, Nico R.) to the situation, allowing for prompt treatment; "ruining the surprise," according to Patient. Spouse called crewmates (P.1 Monkey D., L. and P.2 Roronoa Z.) for help, carried Patient to infirmary.

CONDITION:  
Patient is alive, stable, and alert. Spouse is currently feeding Patient cola float (vanilla ice cream & cola), "to prevent him from talking," but has not left Patient's side for 5 hours. Patient is in good spirits, receiving high dosage of morphine. Requests guitar to sing "Burnin' Love" for Spouse.


	15. Forget Me Not

_Summary:_

Franky feels guilty after the events of Dressrosa.

 _Notes:_

After I had already started this chapter, Zindakku Hirokai asked in a review if I was going to write Robin finding out Franky kissed Kyuin. While this little one-shot isn't about that kiss, I still got to put how I thought Robin would react on paper, so I have them to thank for the idea! :) (Also, I took some creative liberties with the way a certain Devil Fruit works, but Oda never gave a full explanation of it, so it's technically still canon-compliant as far as I know.) Enjoy, and thanks as always for reading!

* * *

 _15\. Forget-Me-Not_

 _( earlier that day )_

 _Despite everything he thought he knew about comedy, Franky couldn't help but marvel at how deeply unfunny the tears of a man dressed up like a giant baby could be when you saw them in person._

 _But maybe he was just stressed out, he reminded himself—after all, Dressrosa had been hard on everyone in their small-but-mighty party of 8. He couldn't wait to go home to the Sunny, just him and his 6 bros plus Girlie, and forget all about Doflamingo and Señor Pink and all the odd, hollow feelings this place evoked in some dark corner of his heart._

 _It was unfortunate, Franky mused, that there was no other Straw Hat pirate between the ages of 22 and 90 with whom he could hypothetically have an adult conversation about everything that had happened. He loved his crew, but living with a peer was a luxury he hadn't had since Water 7, and it was starting to weigh heavily on him._

 _For a moment, he lost his balance and felt a blinding pain in his temple—but he was able to shake it off and keep pummeling his opponent. Maybe it was just the lasting symptoms of that suckerpunch he'd taken. Yeah. That sounded about right._

" _Luciann…" Señor Pink choked, bloody and beaten and writhing on the ground in agony._

 _The cyborg withdrew his fists, halting the Franky Iron Boxing barrage due to a sudden, inexplicable twinge of an emotion he didn't recognize._

 _He studied his opponent's expression, searching for a hint of insincerity in man's the mournful face. "… What?"_

 _Pink wiped his eyes, fighting to speak between breathless sobs. "My… my wife…!" he managed to gurgle, bleeding and crying so uninhibitedly that he sounded like he was drowning. "Everything I do… I do for my sweet Luciann!"_

 _Franky felt oddly compelled to say something sympathetic, but he quickly corrected himself. The man was in love, after all— something Franky hadn't experienced in years, and even then, he had never even gotten close to marriage._

 _So he listened, hoping it would bring the man some comfort. That would have to be enough for now._

* * *

 _( now )_

Amidst all the chaos of the newly formed Straw Hat Fleet's launch party, Franky had plenty of available distractions to use in his effort to avoid Robin.

Every few minutes he'd pretend someone was trying to get his attention across the room, or duck out of her sight to hide in the bathroom, or lie about some damage the drunken pirates had done to the ship that needed his immediate attention. It would have been easy if it didn't make him feel so awful.

Then night fell, and it dawned on him that they slept in the same room.

He had hoped she would be asleep—hoped he could just slip into their bed with her unnoticed, wrap her up in his arms, and fall asleep without thinking about it for another minute. But then he saw the glow emitting from the open door of their bedroom, and he had to take a deep breath before he could make his legs move.

Cautiously, he crept forward—silencing his clamorous iron footsteps to the best of his ability—and he felt his heart sink when he saw her, wide awake and sitting at her vanity with her back to the door.

He stood on the threshold for a moment, leaning wearily on the doorframe and watching her with a far-off look in his eyes—the low, warm light of their cabin made her look like an angel, brushing her long, beautiful black hair, with her porcelain skin, deep blue eyes, and the silk of her violet nightgown and robe all shining in the lanterns' glow.

She was perfect. And once again, he had failed to measure up.

"Honey?" he said quietly, knocking on the wooden doorframe as gently as he could with his big metal hands.

She glanced at him in the mirror, gracing him with that soft, gorgeous smile he had fallen so hopelessly in love with—and he felt weak in the knees, dreading what he was going to have to tell her in the conversation that followed. "You look tired. Can I make you some tea?" she said sweetly, gently placing the brush on the surface next to her jewelry box.

"… I'm okay, thanks."

She smoothed her hair over her shoulders, letting it fall down her back in big, gorgeous waves, and turned in her vanity seat to look at him. "… If you're worried about the others, don't be. Sanji wouldn't let anything happen to them."

"Ah… yeah, I guess not." He shrugged off the black jacket he had worn as part of his disguise, draping it over a chair beside the armoire before collapsing exhaustedly onto its cushioned seat.

She stared at him pensively, those piercing blue eyes fixating on his face as he fought to avoid her gaze. "… What's wrong?"

"I'm… I'm just tired. … Maybe that man-baby got a punch or two on me when I wasn't super-wrecking him, you know?" he scratched his head sheepishly, staring at his feet.

She narrowed her eyes—seeing right through him, as usual. "Is that why you've been avoiding me all night?"

"Haha… w-what?"

"Franky…"

"Hey, what's wrong with that Barto guy, by the way? He wouldn't stop saying he 'shipped' you and me, and I was like, 'bro, we have a ship, it's called the Thousand Sunny and it's the king of all ships,' and he was all, 'no no no, dude, a ship is a romantic relationship,' and then I started to think, 'oh shit, maybe this guy actually doesn't know what a ship is,' so I was like, 'you're a pirate, bro! What do you call the thing you live on?' and he looked at me like _I_ was the crazy perso—"

"You're babbling, dear. What are you not telling me?" She leaned forward, clasping her hands over her knee, not so much as blinking as she studied him attentively.

"… Nothing."

"You're a terrible liar," she said flatly.

"I…" But he trailed off as he made the mistake of meeting her gaze—and he froze when he noticed a twinge of pain in her discerning expression, clearly hurt that he felt the need to be dishonest with her.

It broke him down completely.

He felt his bottom lip quiver in spite of himself, tears welling up in his eyes—and he did the only thing he could think to do and covered his eyes like a child, crying into his sleeve. Her footsteps were so light that he barely heard her stand up and cross to his side, silently wiping the tears running down his chin with her lithe fingertips.

"What happened…?" She sighed, her eyes softening as they traveled over his expression.

"… I… I _forgot about you_ ," he said weakly—and he choked back a sob when he heard the horrible words come out of his mouth, unable to even look at her.

She tilted her head a little, kneeling in front of him and trying to meet his gaze.

"Y-you turned into a toy, and I _forgot you,_ just like that..." he sobbed, holding a hand over his eyes and leaning away from her touch. "E-even after Usopp knocked out Sugar, I couldn't remember anything until I saw you and it all came back…"

"… It was a powerful Devil Fruit. Nothing more," she said quietly, staring at the ironclad hand she was holding between her own.

"B-But it was like we'd never even _met_ ," Franky blew his nose into his sleeve, staring over her head with a frightened look in his tearful eyes. "All of a sudden I was somebody else, somebody I didn't even _like_ , somebody who had something to _prove_ —I mean, I actually _kissed_ some girl just because I knew she'd get upset and stay out of my fight!"

Robin raised her eyebrows, leaning back a bit with a critical, deadpan look in her eyes. He knew that look—too offended at his misogynistic actions to be even a little jealous—and it made him feel about a hundred times worse.

"… I'm not proud, alright?" he covered his eyes again, waving his hand at her shamefully through fresh tears. "But without you, I was out of control… and I didn't even _know_ it until everything was over and I saw you standing there…"

She shook her head, sighing. "No one gets their memories back until they see their missing loved ones as humans aga—"

"But that's just it!" he blurted, suddenly moving his arm away from his face and gripping her shoulders in his big hands. "… I mean, I love you, you know?! I love you _so much_ and I couldn't even remember who you _were_!"

She stared at him, taken aback. "Franky…"

"I-I know it's part of the curse," he squeezed his eyes shut, clutching her tightly, "but you deserve someone who would never let some dumb fruit just _erase you_ from his brain!"

"Franky, look at me."

"I… I have to go." he started to get up, avoiding her gaze.

"No you don't."

"Yeah I _do_ , now leggo'f me…"

" _Stop_."

Before he could fire back, she grabbed him by the collar and kissed him firmly on the lips.

After what felt like eternity, they broke apart, and he looked at her for a lingering, breathless moment, like he had just woken up from a long, strange dream. "I… I was…"

She stroked his cheek gently, letting her thumb wipe away some of his remaining tears. "You're not the only one who was afraid," she said quietly, casting her eyes down with a sorrowful ghost of a look on her face. "… but in spite of that, we made it. We're still here, and we still love each other."

He felt his heart leap in his chest, arms encircling her waist and clutching her like she'd fly away if he didn't hold on tightly enough. He sniffed. "W-We do?"

She nodded, letting out a little sigh of a laugh. "Yes." She pecked him on the lips. "Of course." Kiss. "Always." Kiss, kiss.

Franky held Robin's head against his shoulder for a few long moments, resting his chin on her forehead as he sorted his thoughts.

"… You said you were scared too," he finally mumbled into her hair.

She let out a barely audible sigh. "Well, yes."

Franky sat back in the chair, cupping her face in his hands as his eyes wandered anxiously over her expression. "Don't be, okay? I'm not gonna forget about you again." He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Seriously, even when the Devil Fruit messed with my head, I could tell I was missing something important."

Robin beamed. "Really?"

A huge, dopey grin broke across his face. "Maybe it's the BF-37 system upgrades, but I don't think my brain is programmed to function without you."

"… That's… oddly romantic…"

"I know, right?"

"… but worrisome. I hope you're not about to have a stroke."

"... There she is."

* * *

" _I love her so much..." Señor Pink heaved between breaths—then he slipped into unconsciousness on the ground at Franky's feet._

 _But then a sudden, piercing headache made Franky stumble, and for a split second the whole world around him turned white—save for the single, fleeting afterimage of a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair—but she was gone as quickly as she had appeared, leaving him with nothing but questions and a sharp pain in his temples._

 _The cyborg stepped back, haunted by the strangely familiar face that flickered in his own brain when the man spoke of the woman he loved—and suddenly, he felt the intense need to say something, anything, even if the incapacitated man couldn't hear him, feeling strangely sympathetic toward the love-struck fool who had been his opponent._

 _He couldn't just forget about a feeling like that._

" _H-hey… get it together, bro," he huffed. "Crying like that, over something you remembered out of nowhere…" He bent down to wipe the tears from Pink's cheeks, eliciting gasps from the women and the dwarves who were watching their fight._

 _Then he walked away from the unconscious man, making way for the swarm of crying women who immediately tended to their poor, battered Señor's injuries._

" _I'll see you again," he called over his shoulder, ignoring the tiny men clamoring at his heels to congratulate him on his victory._

 _But there_ she _was in his mind again—like a mirage he couldn't shake—so he added one more thing._

"… _I'll buy you a drink… and you can tell me about that wife of yours."_

* * *

Franky woke up in the night with his arm around Robin's waist, propping his head up on his elbow so he could look at her face while she dozed peacefully against him. Her pale, shoulder shined in the light of the moon that filtered through the window—still, peaceful, and statuesque in her beauty—and he was oh-so-careful when he picked up the edge of the bed sheet, draping it over her skin to protect her from the night air.

"Hey," he mumbled sleepily. "When all this is over, I'm gonna marry you. Just watch me."

He kissed her cheek, inhaling the sweet, flowery scent that made him feel at home no matter where in the world they traveled, and wrapped her up in his arms again, nestling his head on her shoulder.

If he hadn't closed his eyes, he might have seen her look at him out of the corner of her eye, fully awake, with a blush that could have lit up the night.


	16. Girl Meets Boy

_Summary_

After two years apart, Rob meets up with Frankie at Sabaody Archipelago.

 _Notes_

Obligatory genderswap AU drabble, because this fandom is obsessed with salad for some reason. ;)

* * *

 _16\. Girl Meets Boy_

"AOW! DAMN, WHO'S THAT TASTY HUNK OF MAN CANDY? HE LOOKS KINDA LIKE OUR SUPERRRRR FINE ARCHAEOLOGIST, NICO RRRRRROB, AMIRITE?!"

 _Pause_.

"… Heh. You haven't changed a bit, have you Frankie?"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, _that's_ how you react to seeing your kickass girlfriend for the first time since she got two years sexier? Look at all these upgrades! Look at my twin TEC-9s!"

 _Smile_. "Well, you look happy and healthy, and that's what counts. But can you even be considered human anymore?"

 _Pout_. "… Oh, great. You still like to be SUPER RUDE when I'm tryin' to be romantic. Would it kill you to say 'I missed you, Frankie!' or do you just compulsively need to be an asshole all the time?"

 _Touch_. "I missed you, Frankie."

 _Blush_. "… Jerk." _Swat_. "… I-I missed you too."

"You did?"

"A little. … Don't let it go to your head, Flower Boy."

"Hmm. Wouldn't dream of it, Perv Girl."

"... W-wow, I take it all back. You know exactly what to say to make a lady feel special~"


	17. Walks and Stargazing and Insomnia

_Summary_

"Oh, knock it off. I've seen the way you look at each other. And if there's one thing I'm good at, it's picking up on sparks in the atmosphere, and not just the kinds that make lightning, if you catch my drift."

 _Notes_

The song is Madonna's "Hanky Panky." Enjoy some fun Franky & Nami nakamaship. :)

* * *

Franky had only been part of this batshit crazy crew for two weeks. _Two weeks_. And yet here he was, being tortured for the second time since the fall of Enies Lobby—although, he had to admit, Nami's stiletto-heeled sandal digging into his face on the floor of the ship's engine room was decidedly less… intrusive than the method they employed when he joined at Water 7.

But this time, it was his own fault, he reminded himself hastily. He was the one who was dumb enough to believe the note on his workshop door was really from Nico Robin, naïve enough to follow its instructions and go to the library at 2:00 AM, arrogant enough to believe the gorgeous archaeologist would really summon him to meet her 'in a more intimate setting,' when all she had done was peck him on the cheek the last time they spoke (and really, that was just Robin being Robin). It served him right that all he found when he got there was a note that said "look up," and one of Zoro's weights dropped squarely onto his forehead, knocking him unconscious immediately.

Should he have seen it coming? Maybe. But that didn't make it any less of a dick move on the navigator's part.

"Alright, girlie," he snarled, struggling with the bonds around his wrists. "You got me with your _super_ clever little note trick. So, are you gonna tell me what the hell this is about?"

"In good time," she said devilishly, and he could practically hear the grin crack on her smug little face. "First, I'm gonna need you to answer a few questions."

"Oh, for the love of… look, I'm not the one who dipped into your little cash pot, alright? Go waterboard Luffy, he's the one who was eyeballing all that expensive seaking meat—"

"I know it was Luffy, dumbass," she said with a roll of her eyes, twisting her heel so it dug deeper into his cheek. "And believe me, I've already collected that debt with interest."

Franky heard something that sounded like the click of a sound dial turning on, and he craned his neck to try to catch a glimpse what she was doing. Nami quickly subdued him with her shoe again, making him groan in pain.

"But you... " she said darkly, "… Well, what you've done is a much more serious offense, and it comes with much more serious consequences."

"… You're gonna have to be a little more specific than tha—"

" _HNNNNNNN LIKE FRANKY PANKY_

 _NOTHIN' LIKE A GOOD SPANKYYYYY_

 _DON'T TAKE OUT YOUR HANDKERCHIEFS_

 _I DON'T WANNA CRY, I JUST WANNA FRRRRANKY PANKYYYYY"_

The moment he recognized the high, shrill, tone-deaf voice blasting out of the sound dial as his own, Franky practically felt his soul ooze out of his body.

"You… you didn't…"

The orange-haired girl's features twisted into that famous feline smirk that had always made her "Cat Burglar" epithet seem so terrifyingly accurate, giving her heel a sharp _twist_ before removing it from its pinpoint on his cheek. She innocently clasped her hands behind her back as he sat up with a grunt of pain, strolling leisurely around to face him. "That's right, genius. I recorded you singing in the shower. And now you're gonna tell me everything, or it's gonna be the first sound Robin hears when she wakes up tomorrow morning."

He heard his voice continuing to blare on the dial—scatting weirdly and stumbling over syllables, full of misplaced confidence reserved for virtuosos—and he felt his heart rate triple. "… C-can you turn that off, please?"

"Did you say, 'turn that up'? Because I'm sure everyone in the barracks would love to hear your little shitshow—"

"NO!" He blurted, sweating profusely as the image of Robin's incredulously amused face filled his mind, imagining her laughing at the singing moron delusional enough to think he might have had a chance with her. He froze for a moment, staring at the floor, mind racing for a possible way out of this. Whenever he felt like one of the guys back at the Franky House was angry at him, he'd just yell _what's your problem, bro?!_ and they'd punch each other until the punches turned into tears and hugs and _I love you, man!_ s—but obviously, that wasn't going to be an option here, so he took a deep breath and thought hard before speaking. "… Listen, girlie, I'll tell you what you want to know. Just be straight with me, alright? What did I do?"

Amber eyes narrowed, and the navigator leaned down to sneer directly into his face. "You're really gonna make me say it? Man, even after Robin smashed 'em, you've still got some balls, you know that?"

"… Are you pissed off about the renovations I'm doing in your room? Because I already told Sanji I'm not installing that peephol—"

"God damn it, Franky, enough!" She grabbed him by the hair, lifting his face up so his wide cyan eyes met her own fiery gaze. "Now, you better start giving me answers and _fast_ , or I'm taking this straight to Luffy! _How long have you been sleeping with Robin?!"_

Silence. Franky blinked.

"…I, uh… what?"

She let go of his hair and stood upright, arms folded, with a seasoned eye roll that would have made any normal person dizzy. "Oh, knock it off. I've seen the way you look at each other. And if there's one thing I'm good at, it's picking up on sparks in the atmosphere, and not just the kinds that make lightning, if you catch my drift."

Franky flushed scarlet, heart somersaulting bizarrely at the navigator's words— _did she really think Robin looked at him that way?_ —but he pulled himself together, earnestly spluttering, "I-I'm not sleeping with Nico Robin!"

She scoffed, giving him a deadpan glare. "Oh, _please_. There's no way a pervert like you hasn't tried _something_ with her. And since you're still alive, I'm inclined to believe she was at least a little bit into it. Unless you blackmailed her, in which case I'll turn you into scrap metal."

Franky's face faulted, horrified. "Wh-what do you mean, 'tried something'? What makes you think I'd even want to… d-do that with her?"

She laughed out loud at this, playing with the rope in her hands. "Call it a hunch. Also, you _did_ fall for the note trick."

He gulped. Nami was painfully direct, but he supposed this might end better for him if there were no pretenses between them. "… Listen, e-even if I did like her—and I don't—why would that be any of your business?"

She stared him dead in the eyes, rattling off her list without even pausing for a breath. "Because there are guys way hotter than you on this ship and she's never even blinked at 'em. Because you could be blackmailing her. Because Robin's room is _my_ room and I don't want you anywhere near it. Because I need to know that you really care about her before I let you fuck this up and ruin the whole crew dynamic. Because _EW_ , Franky, what the hell?"

"All right, all right, I see your point," he said hastily, sighing in discomfort and defeat. "… But seriously, what gave you the impression that something actually _happened,_ with… with me and Robin?"

She stared at him suspiciously, obviously a little unprepared for his consistently earnest, respectful treatment of the subject. "If you must know… ever since you joined the crew, she goes out in the middle of the night a few times a week and says she's 'stargazing'—and, I mean, obviously Robin doesn't give two shits about astrology; she's a historian, not a fortuneteller. But she stays out for hours at a time, and she always comes back all creepily happy, like Luffy after he's raided the fridge. It's not like her, it's weird and it's gross and I know she's gotta be getting laid, because she used to hate waking up in the night before you showed up-"

"Wait, what?" Franky stared at her, obviously taken aback. "… She told me she's always taken walks at night."

The girl paused, scanning his face for a sign of insincerity. "… Well, she's lying. But how the hell did you find out about these 'walks'?"

The cyborg took a deep breath, struggling to meet the navigator's eyes. "… Well, the first few nights after I joined, I had some major… insomnia, I guess—new places are weird for me, you know? … So on one of those nights, I decided to reorganize some supplies, and I tripped carrying a whole bunch of lumber right outside your cabin. The sound must have woken her up, because she came outside and talked to me—she said she takes walks on deck almost every night, because she's a light sleeper and she likes the quiet."

"… Okay, but why has she been going out at night so often since then? You don't purposefully wake her up every night with some bullshit accident, do you?" Nami's expression turned dangerous again.

"No! But…" All the blood rushed to his face, and he tugged uncomfortably at the ropes around his wrists. "I… do still pretend I can't sleep at night. So I can catch her on one of her 'walks.' She's nice to talk to, you know?"

The girl's eyes softened, but she stayed silent.

Franky cleared his throat. "… But there's nothing going on. Really. _Super_ scout's honor."

Nami nodded slowly, a distant, unreadable look in her eyes. "Right. … Just 'walks' and 'stargazing' and 'insomnia.'"

Franky looked up at her, confused. "What?"

"Nothing," she strode behind him nonchalantly, and he felt a wave of relief wash over him as he heard the soft _shing_ of a knife cutting neatly through his bonds. "Okay, fine. You're off the hook for now. But you've gotta stop lying to Robin. She probably already knows you're doing it anyway, you're not that slick."

He shook his wrists loose, stumbling to his feet awkwardly with a jovial grin. "What, that's it? I thought for sure you'd use that Thunderbolt Tempo of yours to jolt some more embarrassing stuff out of me—"

"Don't get cute." She turned on her heel, leering at him and making the hair on his neck stand straight up as she pointed at him accusatorily. "I'm still gonna be watching you. And you'd better watch your unprotected human back if you even think about stepping out of bounds with Robin during these little 'talks' of yours."

He swallowed, saluting her uncomfortably. "Y-yes ma'am."

Nami paused for a moment, eyeing him carefully. "… I'm always gonna look out for Robin first. But you're part of the family now, so I'm asking you nicely not to screw this up. Don't let me down, okay?"

Franky felt a grin he couldn't control break across his features. "… Basically, you're asking if you can trust me not to break your daughter's heart?" He smiled wider at her annoyed expression. "… You're a _super_ good dad, girlie."

 _BAM_. He moaned in pain, clutching the lump where she had slammed her fist into the top of his head.

"You're an idiot," she mumbled as she turned to leave. "And I'm keeping the damn sound dial."


	18. Proposal

_Summary_

Robin and Franky ask Luffy for an important favor.

 _Notes_

Because I love all of them.

* * *

"Will you marry us?"

Luffy sucked on his teeth, blankly regarding the two people in front of him on the deck of their ship for a fraction of a second, before he blurted out a short answer. "No."

Franky's jaw dropped in horror, clearly wounded that the question he'd been building up the courage to ask his captain had been shot down so easily.

His intended—picturesque in her bright pink sundress, which matched his Hawaiian shirt perfectly—patted him reassuringly on the chest with the hand that sported her glimmering, custom-made engagement ring. "Franky," she said evenly, with a weary look on her face, "… he thinks we're asking him to be our husband."

"OH," Franky blurted, laughing out loud at the realization. "No, no Luffy, we want you to—ahh… how do I put this?"

"As captain of the ship, you're legally qualified to officiate wedding ceremonies between your crew members," Robin said coolly, with a little hint of a smile she couldn't suppress. "It would mean the world to Franky and I if you would _marry_ us."

"To each other," her groom-to-be interjected, squeezing her waist and leaning over sideways to rest his head on hers for emphasis.

Luffy shrugged, shifting his weight from foot to foot antsily. "Yeah, okay. But why?"

"Well, we're in love," Robin said simply, smiling at Franky out of the corner of her eye. "And we'd like to be together until we die, likely in a violent end to some bloody struggle with rival pirates seeking to kill us all and usurp your throne."

"See? I gotta lock this weirdo down, she's perfect." Franky kissed her firmly on the cheek, grinning like a fool as she nonchalantly fixed his messy hair with an extra pair of hands. "And she said yes, because I'm super!"

"So we would like your blessing, if you're willing to participate." She finished brightly.

The rubber boy tilted his head to the side (so dramatically that it turned upside down), gaze fixating on his crewmates like he was trying to see through them. Then his eyes suddenly widened, and he snapped his rubber neck back to its neutral position with an audible _thoink_. "OH! You mean you want me to tell you guys when to kiss?"

Franky twitched, clearly not anticipating this many conversational hurdles. "Um. I mean, that's _part_ of it, but—"

"Yes." Robin said quickly, shooting her fiancée a look out of the corner of her eye that told him this wasn't worth over-explaining. "That's essentially what we're asking, Luffy."

"Okay. You can kiss," he said plainly, looking at them with his trademark poker face and lifting his hands as if to say, 'go.'

"Wait, we didn't mean…" but Franky trailed off when his gaze locked on his bride—practically glowing in the light of the afternoon sun, with an amused, expectant little smile on her soft features—and suddenly he realized that he couldn't wait one more second to do what his captain had instructed, so he scooped her up in his arms and kissed her like his life depended on it.

They broke apart after what seemed like eternity—smiling like they were sixteen and in love for the first time as Franky gently placed her feet back on the ground—before Luffy's voice brought them both back to reality.

"So you're married now, right?"

The couple both opened their mouths to speak, then looked at each other for a long moment.

Then Robin burst out laughing—uncharacteristically free, loud, and full of joy. She wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye, waving her hand dismissively when Franky gave her a worried look of _what the hell has gotten into you_. "… Yes, Luffy, thank you. I think that was just about perfect," she said happily, wrapping a chain of her arms around Franky's midsection and making him blush feverishly.

Her new husband looked at her with a mixture of shock and amusement and so, so much love, before clutching her closer to his chest and looking at Luffy with a big grin he couldn't control. "… Yeah, come to think of it, I don't know why I ever thought we had to take the legal route. We're pirates, after all."

She smiled sweetly up at him. "I didn't want to wait, anyway."

He laughed, hugging her a little tighter. "Right? Me neither!"

Luffy picked his nose. "You guys are weird. Can we go eat something now?"

Robin beamed, wrapping her captain up in a hug which he awkwardly returned as she spoke, "I think you've earned some cake. Go ask Sanji to make one, just tell him it's for my wedding."

"YES!" Luffy kissed her sloppily on the cheek before darting off at full speed, whooping.

Franky stared after the rubber boy momentarily—but then his bride surprised him with a deep, passionate kiss, which he eagerly returned, lifting her up again and laughing into her lips.

She pulled back after a few seconds, placing a single index finger between their mouths as she glanced toward the galley cabin where Luffy had just barreled in. "Wait for it," she whispered. "3… 2… 1…"

 _BANG. BOOM. HISS._

" _WHHHAAAAAATTTT?!_ FRANKYYYY, GET YOUR RUSTY ASS IN HERE AND FACE ME, YOU UPCYCLED TIN CAN PIECE OF SHIT!"

"Shut up, Sanji-kun! You're not the one who already dropped THIRTY. THOUSAND. BERRIES. ON A. GOD. DAMN. _BRIDESMAID'S DRESS!_ _ROOOOOBIIIIIINNNN_!"

"CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE-"

"Oh dear lord, is she pregnant?! Was this a _shotgun wedding_?! Why not just put a huge sticker on the ship that says, ' _Pregnant lady on board! Please use as leverage if you're here for our heads!'_ " The sliding sound of a window opening. Usopp's head and fist popping out of the side of the galley. "Thanks a lot, you horny bastards, you've killed us all!"

"They're having a baby?! WAAAAH! But Robin hasn't been taking any of the proper prenatal vitamins!"

"CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE-"

"… Wait, who's pregnant?"

"NOBODY, YOU SHIT-EATING MARIMO. ROBIN-CHWAN AND THAT NUT-AND-BOLT-SACK FRANKY GOT MARRIED."

"… I thought they were already married. I'm going back to sleep."

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

More screaming. The _fwoosh_ of a fire starting. Brook's signature laugh. "Here Comes the Bride" playing on the violin over the sounds of chaos and destruction.

Franky just stared at the galley in horror, his face white as a sheet. "… What have we done?"

Robin just smirked, kissing him on the jawline, before whispering in his ear, "We just bought ourselves an hour to start the honeymoon."

"Oh. … OH. _SUPEEEEERRRRRR!"_


	19. Up

Summary

AU - Robin and Franky live and work in modern Washington, D.C., where they meet for the first time.

* * *

 _Washington, D.C., United States. 9/2016._

People constantly asked Robin if being a librarian was boring work. She would always respond that there was no job on earth more enthralling than watching the human soul search for itself all around you.

Beyond the veritable treasure trove of authentic historical documents that was constantly at her arms' length, the young historian's favorite thing about her day-to-day activities as the director of the Smithsonian Libraries was the daily flow of fascinating individuals through her workplace. A new person would come in, look around, digest his or her surroundings—and then all of a sudden their feet would start to carry them toward a section of the library, a piece of knowledge, a part of themselves that even they didn't know they had until that single, sacred moment.

All of them—from the wiry, loudmouthed teenager with the scar under his left eye, who came in because he thought the place was a huge food court and left with a documentary film on pirates, to the old man with the afro who cried when he found a children's book called _Laboon,_ which he had been searching for since he was a young man—they were all her reason for waking up in the morning. She wondered if they could tell what it meant to her to watch them come alive in her presence. She secretly hoped that someone could.

So it surprised her a little that day when she saw someone come in and walk straight toward her, rather than hunt for a specific area of interest. Especially when that someone was the nice-looking man with the bright blue hair who had been coming in several times a week for the past month.

He flicked his sunglasses onto his brow as he approached her (and she briefly wondered what on earth he was doing wearing sunglasses indoors on a rainy D.C. day, but dismissed the thought). She could tell by his wet hair, slacks, work polo and tie that he had been running in the downpour without an umbrella. But his smile was bright—goofy, even, she thought fondly—and he didn't try to hide it like most people, which made her feel weak in a way she couldn't quite identify.

"Yo!" he blurted, his voice like a firecracker in the dead of night—but she put her finger to her lips, indicating for him to quiet down, and he looked around with a mortified expression before whispering, "ah… sorry! … Hi. I'm lookin' for a book on electromagnetic engineering. Author's name is Vegapunk."

She regarded him for a moment—he was tall, even to a woman who was six-foot-two, with distinctive features and a strong jawline and such electric blue eyes—but she averted her gaze, clearing her throat to speak. "… Upstairs on your right, in the Natural and Physical Sciences collection. We have most of Vegapunk's works, unless you're looking for—"

"Punk Hazard, 1983?" he said with a grin, his eyes lighting up as they caught hers. "Yeah, that one's a doozy to get your hands on nowadays."

"But all of his works before 1981 are available. Those are the titles that are still legal."

"Man, what working with the enemy can do to a person's 'street cred'…"

"… I think it's ridiculous." She said sternly, pushing up her reading glasses onto the bridge of her nose. "Vegapunk was a traitor, but he was still one of the greatest innovators since the field's inception."

She glanced up to see him staring at her with an awed, far-off expression full of some emotion she couldn't quite place. He snapped out of it, rubbing his neck absently so she caught a glimpse of the "BF-37" tattoo on his left bicep. "Uh, wow. I-I couldn't have said it better myself. I see you here all the time, are you a government researcher or something? You… you really know your stuff."

She smiled a little in spite of herself. "Well, I am the library director. I like to know my materials."

His jaw dropped. "No kidding? W-wow. I had no idea you were so high up around here, that's super incredible!"

"Well, 'high up' is an interesting choice of words," she said with a coy smile. "But it's a job that suits me well. What is it that you do?"

"I'm a robotics engineer. NASA." He flashed her an official-looking badge on the lanyard around his neck, with the NASA logo engraved at the top, and the name _'Franklin Cutty'_ written in bold letters under a photo of him posing like some kind of disco-era workout coach. "… Everybody always assumes you're an astronaut when you say you work for NASA, but I mainly work with AI tech. Drones and stuff, you know."

"Franklin," she mouthed, smirking a little at the name and the photo.

" _Franky_ ," he interjected quickly, clearing his throat. "Ahem. _Please_. My parents were obviously sadists who didn't want me to live through middle school."

"Robin Nico." She said simply, extending a hand which he eagerly shook.

"Pleasure, Miss Nico," he said earnestly, glancing down at their hands as his eyes caught his ID card. "Shi— Uh, and please disregard the stupid ID picture, the camera guy dared me to do that. I think he's some kind of pervert."

She smiled, eyes trained on his with a playful hint of knowing. "Well, NASA _does_ seem to employ some interesting types…"

"Watch it. We went to the moon, probably," he said with a wink and a big grin—then broke eye contact, looking around the facility with a private little smile like he'd just found buried treasure. "So, you got a minute to show me where that section is, exactly? I'd go on my own, but, y'know, I get lost kind of easily, and those directions sounded _super_ simple, so I'm afraid I'll overthink them and wind up somewhere in Pennsylvania..."

"Ah. Well, we wouldn't want that, would we? Right this way, Franky."

* * *

Once he had his book—one of Vegapunk's first-edition works on electromagnetic fields and the synchronization of unmanned air vehicles—she walked with him to the check-out desk, feeling her heart sink a little as she verified his federal NASA ID card, scanned the inside cover and passed him the manuscript so he could leave.

He smiled at her—a real, sweet smile her long career in academia had made her forget to expect from a person—and suddenly she remembered that he would have to walk out into the storm, and the very image of that smile fading away like the sun behind a cloud was enough to make her feel instantly protective of it.

"Take this," she said hastily, reaching for her black umbrella under the desk and passing it to him over her computer. "… To keep the book dry. You were soaking wet when you got here."

He gave her a look of surprise as he reached out to take it. "W-wow, really? The library just gives these away for free?" He turned it over in his hand, whistling. "It's nice, too. Why not just give people plastic bags?"

She fell silent.

He studied her carefully for a long moment, then glanced between her and the umbrella, eyes widening. "… Wait, is this yours?!"

She looked up at him challengingly, eyes steely in spite of the light panic she felt. "No, it belongs to the library staff, but I figured I'd make an exception and lend it to you since you're taking an item off-site," she lied.

"Oh… then, when can I bring it back to you?"

"Well, I'd rather not let my colleagues know I'm lending out company property to strangers. Federal institutional regulations, you know. I suppose Friday after closing time would be the most discrete option."

He shot her a big grin. "Super! I'll float by on my way home, then."

She nodded, suppressing the urge to smile back.

"'Til then, Robin Nico," he said brightly, and she watched him go with a pang in her chest. "Keep lookin' up, alright?"

She shifted a little in her chair, watching him duck out into the rain before releasing the breath she had been holding.

* * *

By the time Friday arrived, the rain had given way to a gentle mist in the air, the sun peering through the clouds in a way that made all of D.C. look like it was covered in glitter.

Robin figured the man with the blue hair had probably forgotten about their arrangement just as quickly as the weather had lightened up. Still, he was kind, and she didn't regret giving him the umbrella (even though it meant she had to pick up a new one at a convenience store on the drive home that night.)

So when she stepped out onto the front steps of the Smithsonian Library in her white trenchcoat, rummaging for her shades in her purse, the last thing she expected to see was the outline of a hovering drone suddenly blocking the harsh orange light of the setting sun.

She squinted, pushing her sunglasses down her nose, as she noticed a small, folded white card attached to the landing gear. Once her vision adjusted to the backlight of the sunset, she saw that it was marked with two words written in untidy capital letters.

 _MISS NICO_

"Franky…?" She murmured under her breath, immediately extending a hand to take the message—but the drone moved just out of her reach when she got close.

She frowned, eyeing it suspiciously before reaching out once again to claim the card. Again, the drone moved away from her touch—but then approached her a few inches, as if beckoning her to follow it.

Normally, she would have been annoyed that someone was expecting her to participate in such a silly waste of her time. Normally, she would have waved it off as nothing but a childish game she had no interest in playing. But she couldn't help but imagine Franky's grin as he flew the little device, watching her vaguely amused expression through the camera, willing her to do what her heart was telling her to, like so many of the people she watched chasing after whims at the library.

She took a couple of steps toward the street, pausing to glance ever-so-slightly over her shoulder. Then she turned sharply on her heel, pounced, and darted after the drone like a child playing tag, laughing and attempting to snatch it without a hint of her usual self-restraint.

The drone weaved around trees, over flower beds and under lamp posts—southwest, through the greenery of the Smithsonian grounds, over a barricade, across an intersection that lit up with a "walk" signal on cue, even through several crowds (including a group of tourists on the sidewalk who clearly were not expecting a crazy woman running after a drone in heels to be part of the D.C. experience.)

For a moment she thought she had lost the device in the trees, and slowed to a jog as she made her way down Constitution Avenue—but then there it was again, flying just over her head as it passed the Holocaust Museum, the Washington Monument, the White House, the National World War II Memorial, Constitution Gardens…

Finally, when Robin was completely out of breath, her target came to a stop—hovering right at the edge of the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool. She made sure to look directly into the camera with a suspicious half-frown-half-smirk as she approached it, reaching up and snatching the little white card that bore her name.

There were just two words written on the inside:

 _LOOK UP_

She glanced around the park, hoping she might catch him red-handed in this whole crazy act, before rolling her eyes and turning her head toward the sky.

What she found soaring overhead made her inhale sharply, taking a step back to absorb the incredible view. A swarm of 100 tiny drones were floating above the Reflection Pool, flying in perfect synchronization so they spelled out a question:

 _DINNER?_

"Oi! Robin!" He shouted from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with a grin—clutching her umbrella under his arm as his hands worked the myriad of buttons on the large remote control he was holding.

He was so happy to hear her shout of "yes," he didn't even notice when the dot on the question mark dropped into the Reflection Pool like a coin into a fountain.


End file.
